


Redux

by CheeseburgerSalads (Ravens_Are_My_Sidekicks)



Category: Atomic Blonde (2017)
Genre: F/F, Fix-It of Sorts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-06
Updated: 2017-10-06
Packaged: 2019-01-09 22:31:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12285627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ravens_Are_My_Sidekicks/pseuds/CheeseburgerSalads
Summary: “Did she give you information?”“She gave me nothing.”





	Redux

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted in Tumblr

_“Did she give you information?”_

_“She gave me nothing.”_

 

“There is something I need to tell you.  It has to do with your friend Percival--  ”

“Shhh.”  

Always wary, Lorraine turns up the music and motions Delphine closer.  The french spy leans in until her lips brush her ear.  Lorraine feels the heat of her naked body, still hot from their earlier exertions.  

“Percival has no interest in retrieving the list for MI6.  He wants it for himself.  He wants to find the person who killed James Gasciogne.  The double agent known as Satchel.”  

Lorraine glances at her from the corner of her eyes.  

“I see.”  

Delphine’s face is a mask of innocence.  Just a wide eyed young girl providing some helpful information to someone she admires.  Lorraine wonders how much she knows, or suspects.   She decides to fish for more.    

“So Gasciogne and Percival...Percival seems to care a great deal for him.  Were they lovers?”  

“Perhaps.  But I hear there was a woman that Gasciogne was in love with.”

Delphine reaches over and clicks off the radio, then leans back on her elbows leisurely, angling her head to better observe Lorraine’s face.  If she’s disappointed to find nothing, she doesn’t show it and continues speaking in her softly accented voice.  

“I wonder how the Russians knew about the list.  Gasciogne must have told someone, non?  Perhaps his mystery woman?”

Lorraine eyes flicker across Delphine body, her bare breasts, the neon lights that play over her skin.  A very beautiful woman.  And a very dangerous one.  She has been lured in, setup for this conversation.    

“And why would this woman betray him to the russians?”

“Why indeed… Perhaps there is something incriminating in the List about her.  Perhaps… a secret identity?”

Cat and mouse.  For once, Lorraine is not sure which one she is.  Her hand itches for her gun.  Instead, she gets up and lights a cigarette.  

Delphine waits for her take a seat across from her before continuing.      

“Satchel knew it was imperative the List be taken from Gasciogne before he can deliver it to MI6.  It’s not convenient for a double agent like Satchel to do it themselves, so why not make use of a Russian?  A stupid one.  One who is not smart enough to unlock and use the List themselves, but would certainly try to sell it for a profit in the market.  Once the List is out in the open, Satchel can easily snatch it from him or the buyer.”

Delphine fixes her keen dark eyes on Lorraine.  

“With their identity on the line, Satchel would never let anyone else retrieve the list for them.  A good spy trusts no one.  They will have to come to Berlin themselves.  And now, right here, we have a mysterious woman very interested in the List... ”

Delphine trails off, letting Lorraine draw her own conclusions.  

“Your deduction is quite impressive.”

Lorraine take one last drag and stubs out her smoke on the bed stand ashtray.  She stands up so she looms over the Delphine’s reclining figure.  

“Now tell me why I shouldn’t put a bullet in your head.”  

Delphine lets out a genuine laugh.

“Surely you don’t think I would tell you all that just to get myself killed.  Rest assured I have measures in place.  Your identity will be released to MI6 and French intelligence upon my death or disappearance.”

“You have no proof that I am Satchel.”

“You know better than I do that proof is not necessary in this business.  Just a whisper, a hint of suspicion, will enough for someone to start digging into your past.  And it won't take much to make the connections I have.”

Stalemate.  

Delphine could be lying to her about revealing her identity, but Lorraine isn’t prepared to call her bluff.  She decides to switch gears.  

“What do you want from me?”

Delphine smiles slightly, knowing she’s scored a small victory.  

“I wasn’t lying to you before at the club.  This spy game isn’t for me.  I want out.  And you are my ticket to freedom.”  

“And how do you propose to do that?”

“I want to fake my death.  And you will help me do it.”

Lorraine listens as Delphine relays her intricate plan to frame Percival for her death and obtain the List.  It’s remarkably well thought out, and even includes a cover story for her MI6 handlers.  

“In return, I’ll make sure to collect ample evidence of Percival’s collaboration with the Russians.  You will have plenty of evidence to present to MI6 to show you were merely executing a traitor.”  Delphine concludes.  

Lorraine has taken a seat and lit another cigarette while the French woman talked.  She takes her time finishing it.  

As the silence stretches out, Delphine shifts nervously, showing some cracks in her calm exterior.  Lorraine lets her sweat it out.  She does not like being told what to do.  

“It will be advantageous for both of us.  Your identity will be safe when we get the List.”  Delphine says, unable to bear the tension for a second longer.  

She stiffens when Lorraine stands up and crosses over.  This close, Lorraine could see the sweat across her hairline and the rapid pulse at her neck.  

Lorraine isn’t sure what she intends to do.  In moments like this, all the possibilities play out in her mind.  It’d be easy to kill her.  Her gun sits waiting in her coat, and her CIA handlers can quickly smother any leaks the girl might have planted.  Or she can go along with her, and be rid of Percival once and for all.   

What she does do was brush her lips gently over Delphine’s (more gently than she knew she could).  She feels a tiny puff of air, as Delphine exhales, a tiny gasp of relief, perhaps.  

“And what about you?  How do I know my identify is safe with you?”  She asks.  But her voice lacks the the bite she intends.  

“Hmm, you never can be sure, can you?”  

With the tension broken, Delphine pretends to look thoughtful, and then loops her arms around her neck.  

“Maybe you should come with me, just in case?”  She breathes into her ear.

Threatening her one minute, and then proposing to run away with her the next.  The sheer audacity of this girl.  

“And how well you sleep at night with a double agent besides you?”

“Very well, I’d hope.”  She replies blithely.    

If only she knew the whole truth.  But even her keen eyes can’t see through all her secrets.  She pushes her away gently.    

“It’s a deal.  Your life in exchange for the Percival and the List”

Delphine shrugs a little dejectedly.  

“Can’t say I didn’t try.”  

They spend the rest of the night going through the details of the plan.  The french transmitter they’ll pretend Percival planted on Lorraine.  The photos Delphine will get of Percival and the Russians. The tapes they’ll record and edit to ‘proof’ that Percival is Satchel.  

Sometime close to dawn, Delphine falls asleep.  Lorraine looks at her, sprawled out on her stomach, with all the tension on her face washed away in slumber.  Obviously she wasn’t kidding when she said she’d sleep well next to her.  

It makes Lorraine uneasy.

For all of Delphine’s bluff and bluster, if they go with the plan, her life is in Lorraine’s hands.  She has given Delphine no reason to trust her.  Even the ‘packages’ she retrieves for the CIA knows that their life is only as valuable at the information they will provide, and easily discarded when they are used up.  Delphine is the same.  Should be the same.  But here she is, sleeping like a baby, completely trusting Lorraine to protect her.  It drives Lorraine crazy, the illogicalness of it all.  Everyone has a motive, a bargaining chip, a piece of leverage.  Try as she might, she can’t figure out what Delphine’s is.  

Feeling somewhat resigned, she lies down to get a few hours of rest.  Delphine rolls towards the warmth of her body in her sleep.  She fits perfectly into the circle of her arms and nuzzles into the crook of her neck in her dreams.  At least her mission is going well, Lorraine thinks.  Both Percival and Delphine could have a been a glitch in the works, but it looks like they’ll be a mere detour to her end objective.  Everything is going according to plan.   

 

* * *

 

Things do not go according to plan.

She didn’t expect Percival to strike first, for him to obtain the List,find out Satchel’s identity, and leak it all to the Russians.  It was a very close call with the Russians while trying to retrieve Spyglass.  Lorraine has had many close calls in her life, but it doesn’t make the experience any more comfortable.  She makes it out of East Berlin, bruised, half drowned, and frozen, but alive.  And as long as she is alive, she always gets her man.  

She corners Percival, who does not put much of fight.  Perhaps he saw death in her eyes.  Perhaps he already had a foot halfway in the grave.  She finishes him off efficiently, retrieves the List, and makes her way to Delphine’s apartment.  She knocks in a pattern that they’ve agreed upon beforehand.  Delphine opens the door and gaps at her face.  Lorraine guesses she doesn’t exactly look her best.

“What happened?”

“Long story.  There were some complications.”  

She enters the apartment and closes the door behind her.        

“Is it done?”  

“Yes.”

“He’s… dead?”  She asks with a tremble in her voice.  

The fear is real this time.  She probably has never killed anyone before.  It’s all fun and games to plot and plan, but the reality of death is something else.    

“Yes.”

Lorraine feels no emotions over Percival’s death.  Kill or be killed.  That is the way the game is played.  She looks at Delphine’s pale face.  She definitely should have a been a rock star or a poet.  

She walks around the apartment, knocking objects over, messing up the bedsheets, scuffing the flooring with her boots.  The beauty of the strangulation story is it leaves no blood trail, all that is needed is signs of a struggle.   She goes through the apartment a second time to straighten everything out, and put everything she’s knocked off back, slightly differently.  She surveys the apartment and nods in satisfaction.  To an ordinary person, it looks like nothing has happened, but a professional team would notice all the signs of a clean up job.  They might think it was the British, hiding the embarrassment of a murder done by their rogue agent, or the Russians, trying to erase any connections to the List.  Either way, everyone will assume someone else did it, and nobody will be volunteering any information about a missing body.    

“Here.”  

Delphine has regained her composure.  She hands her a folder with her name written on it.  

“Photographs of Percival and the Russians, as promised.”  

Lorraine opens it and flips through the photos, nodding her satisfaction.  

“Our business is done.  It’s time for you to go.”  

Delphine puts on her coat and slings her packed bag over her shoulder.

“Lorraine…”  

She grabs the lapels of her coat and kisses her.  It is wild and desperate kiss.  A cut on Lorraine’s lip opens up and they both taste blood.  

“Come with me.  Please.”  

Delphine’s eyes are serious.

“It’s over Lorraine.  The wall is coming down.  Whether the the List gets out or not… it’s over for the spies like us.  We’ll be disowned at best by our own governments, or tracked down and killed by someone out for revenge.  They won’t lift a finger to protect us.  We will be relics of the past they want to bury.  Whatever the Russians are promising you Lorraine, it’s not worth.”    

Lorraine feels a measure of regret that she quickly discards.  In this business, any distractions are deadly.  

“There are still things I must do.”     

“Will you come find me afterwards?”

Lorraine doubts their paths will ever cross again.  But what’s one more lie in her web of lies?  She nods.  

Delphine searches her eyes long and hard.  Satisfied by what she sees, she turns away and exits via the window fire escape.  Lorraine watches her until she disappears around the street corner.  

 

* * *

 

_“Let's go home.”_

_“That sounds good.”_

 

Someone had to prepare Delphine’s identity papers to leave the country.  The boy Merkel was loyal.  More importantly, he did not know who Delphine is and did not ask any questions.  He merely efficiently obtained the necessary paper for Delphine’s new identity.  And made a copy of them for Lorraine.  Lorraine rediscovers the envelope at the bottom of her suitcase when she gets back to the States.  

She stares at it.  It is the only link between the old Delphine and new Delphine.  The only thing that can link her to her spy life.  It was stupid of her to ask Merkel for these copies that could expose her.  She should destroy it.  

She opens it.   

  

* * *

 

Delphine supposes she should be more concerned about someone breaking into her house late at night, but she has been expecting visitors.  One visitor in particular.  

“You should come to bed.”  She says, once she decided that Lorraine has spent enough time watching her in the dark.  

“How did you know it was me?”  

“Who else knows I’m here?  Besides, the Russians would be a lot noisier.”  

The mattress dips and Delphine feels her curl up against her back.  

Delphine is almost asleep again when Lorraine asks:  “How did you know I would come?”  

“When I asked you the question in Berlin, I could see the truth in your eyes.”

That is ridiculous of course.  Lorraine didn’t know herself until she found herself on a plane, and then dropped off by a cab at this address.  To think that Delphine can know her better than herself… well… that is nonsense.  She must have found out some other way, perhaps Merkel tipped her off?  

She opens her mouth to ask, and shuts it again, when Delphine’s slow and steady breathing signals she has gone back to sleep.

Lorraine wraps an arm around her waist and tucks her head under her chin.  She decides she can ask tomorrow.  Or the day after.  Or the day after that.  She closes her eyes and sleeps peacefully for the first time.  

**Author's Note:**

> There was only one scene in the movie I didn’t understand, which is why Lorraine felt the need to cover up for Delphine if she is dead, and what she told her was fairly innocuous. So ofc I had to rewrite entire movie to make that scene fit. Let's count it as my obligatory fix-it fic for this fandom.


End file.
